News

The New York Times (2/9, Belluck) reports researchers examined millions of medical records in the US and found that “people with dementia had significantly greater risk of contracting the coronavirus, and they were much more likely to be hospitalized and die from it, than people without dementia.” The increased “risk could not be entirely explained by characteristics common to people with dementia that are known risk factors for [SARS-CoV-2 infection]: old age, living in a nursing home and having conditions like obesity, asthma, diabetes and cardiovascular disease,” because “after researchers adjusted for those factors, Americans with dementia were still twice as likely to have” been infected with SARS-CoV-2 “as of late last summer.” The findings were published in Alzheimer’s and Dementia. USA Today (2/9, Rodriguez) reports the researchers also found that Black people with dementia “had nearly three times the risk of being infected with [SARS-CoV-2] as white patients did.” During the study, 73% “of Black patients with dementia were hospitalized during the study compared with about 53% of white patients,” and “23% of Black patients died compared with 19% of white patients.” Healio (2/9, Ernst) and MedPage Today (2/9, George) also cover the study. (SOURCE: APA Headlines)